Putzmeister, internationally known as Plaster Master, has made the entire range of internationally acclaimed equipment and machinery at its factory based at Goa.

Name any project - construction of high-rise buildings, power plants, ports, refineries, metro rails, or any large scale constructions projects, you invariably see a putzmeister pump, with unfolded arms pouring concrete. In India, this German giant is on a mission to change the construction for better by making the sites of high-rises more automated thus less time and cost consuming and decreasing risks of fatal accidents, involved in manual construction techniques. Says Michael Schmid Lindenmayer, Managing Director, Putzmeister Concrete Machines, with the usual glint in his eyes, "Complimenting the economic growth of the country, India's infrastructure and real estate market is expanding significantly by the day. Merely 10 per cent of these infrastructure development activities in India have so far been automated which involves substantial amount of time, cost and hazards. So there prevails huge growth opportunities in the country." It's where the company has chipped in successfully, with a wide range of concrete pumping equipment which is essential for the construction of infrastructure projects.

Today, Putzmeister has operations running all across India and its machines are being used in most of the infrastructure development projects in the country, big or small, such as construction of oil refineries in Gujarat, airports construction at Delhi and Bengaluru, hydro electric power plants, DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) and various other projects, which have benefitted by the use of Putzmeister latest concrete pumping equipment. No wonder, the company has received an overwhelming response for all projects across the country thus motivating it to invest further in expansion activities in India. Says Michael, "In India we looks forward to aggressively increasing its operations across the country and contributing not only to the modernisation of the construction and infrastructure segment but also essentially increasing its investments in the country and thereby creating numerous job opportunities."

Referring to a query raised by Equipment India a year ago, Michael said, "Last year during the press meet you asked whether we have any product line in congested cities to pump concrete without noise. The answer we brought now to India and this is the 2107 electrical pump. This is a high pressure pump which can pump buildings up to 400 m. It is a super high pressure electrical pump with zero emissions and it is silent."

Speaking about the overall growth of the industry Michael said, "If you look at the entire industry, the growth is about 24-25 per cent. As far as our growth is concerned, in spite of trying times, we have grown 70 per cent. As far the trailer pumps are concerned it has grown around 30 per cent, around five per cent faster than the industry why because people changing from manual placing into pumping. As far the truck pumps are concerned the market has grown by about 60 per cent. Last year it was 105 units and this year it will be about 160-170 units.

Outlining the service capabilities Michael had this to say, "Service is the most important thing in India. I believe anyone can build a pump. But the equipment will be of no value if you do not have the service back up in the spare parts. When we started here in India we had 35 people in service before we even hired the first salesman. If you do not service them you will end up with a lot of unhappy customers. So today we are organised in all regions and we have call centres to take care of them. We take care that all issues are addressed." He added, "We have over 1,500 machines all over India. Our statistic shows that from 100 calls only 40 per cent are related to the pump. 60 per cent of calls are related to different areas of operations. Our duty as an OEM is not only providing the equipment, we have to make a success story to the customer and get the job done. We do not ask if it is our problem or theirs, we just solve it. If customer buys a pump we first send our concrete expert to check if the concrete has the right mix, whether it is pumpable. We have also started the concept of service vans in Bengaluru," he pointed out.

Explaining further about the developments Michael stated, "It gives me immense pleasure to be able to make our contributions to the progressive and dynamic economy of India. We believe that it is yet another step in the direction of bettering Indo-German relations, which have always been cordial in all spheres, whether that is India's culture, language, ideologies and practices; there is more than one thing that encourages mutual admiration and Putzmeister's expansion in league of the same."